Latency Uncertainty-aware User Allocation in Mobile Edge Computing

Mobile edge computing (MEC) is an emerging distributed paradigm where edge servers are deployed near base stations or access points to support low-latency services. The edge user allocation (EUA) problem, which aims to minimize system cost while meeting constraints like data transmission latency, has become a critical challenge for service providers. Existing studies typically focus on static MEC scenarios, assuming predictable latency between users and edge servers. However, network congestion introduces latency uncertainty, which, if not addressed, increases the risk of allocation failures or excessive service latency. This paper addresses the latency uncertainty-aware edge user allocation (uEUA) problem. We model uEUA as an integer programming problem and apply chance-constrained programming to convert uncertain latency into probabilistic constraints, which we then transform into deterministic conditions using Chebyshev's inequality. We propose two methods to solve the problem: BD-uEUA, an exact approach based on Benders decomposition, and LR-uEUA, an approximate method based on linear relaxation. Extensive experiments on a real-world dataset show that BD-uEUA reduces system costs by 19.70% compared to the state-of-the-art method, while LR-uEUA achieves a 3.05% reduction with only 0.09% of the system overhead.